SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY & YOSEMITE RAILROAD
Incorporated February 15, 1886 by the Southern Pacific Company.
This twenty-one mile road from Berenda to Raymond, California, was
constructed in 1886 and was operated by the Southern Pacific until
it was consolidated with the Southern Pacific Railroad on
May 14, 1888. Known as the Raymond Branch, the track east of
Daulton was abandoned in 1942, and the balance of 10.43 miles
between Berenda and Daulton was abandoned in 1956. A spur from
Knowles Junction to Knowles, 2.3 miles, was built in 1890 by the
Southern Pacific Railroad. A twenty-mile extension northeast from
Raymond toward Yosemite National Park was contemplated but not built.
A Century of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives
By Guy Dunscomb
THE FIRST RAIL ROUTE
TO THE YOSEMITE VALLEY
Southern Pacific's Raymond Branch
For a space of twenty years before the Yosemite Valley Railroad was
built up the canyon of the Merced River visitors to the Yosemite
Valley reached the scenic wonderland by the southern route served
by the Southern Pacific's branch line to Raymond.
In 1887 the rail line was opened from Berenda, near Madera to the
foothill town of Raymond where the stage coach route lead through
Wawona and into the Yosemite Valley.
Pullman service was offered from both San Francisco and Los
Angeles connecting with stages of the Yosemite Stage & Turnpike
Company during the summer season. Some 200 miles of the route
from San Francisco was by rail and 60 miles by stage.
At Knowles a short branch lead to quarry operation that provided
much freight for the line before stone was abandoned as a
construction material. In bound merchandise and cattle and
agricultural products held the line in service until World War II
and eventually the entire line was abandoned and torn-up by 1956.
The opening of the 1907 saw the demise of Yosemite through
service years later particularly Yosemite Valley Railroad in the
line as a major route to was still available for some to serve
Wawona.
The line to Raymond parallel led the Fresno River and the flume
of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company. Engines 4 and 5 of the
Madera Sugar Pine were delivered to Raymond by the S.P. and thense (sic)
by wagons hauled by huge teams of mules to the mill at Sugar Pine
near Wawona.
A railfan excursion on the then "Daulton Branch" was operated
by the California-Nevada Railroad Historical Society on Sunday,
March 27, 1955.
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